Monday, December 22, 2008

Before Christmas, I wanted to leave you with one of our most favorite Christmas recipes. It's so delish. Because it combines the sweet of chocolate. With the salty of pretzels. This is the recipe I contemplated for my cookie swap. Until I read the rules of no child helpers. And this is the perfect recipe for child helpers. For the whole family to be helpers. Because it's not only delish. It is super easy.

Here are our ingredients. You can really play with this a lot. And use all kinds of kisses. We used peanut butter kisses. Plain kisses. Caramel kisses. Hugs. And we added rolos, too.

The first order of business is to get the wrappers off all that candy. And hope. And pray. And cross your fingers. That you get back the amount of candy that you expect. You might need to buy extras. Plus a few more. Because sometimes your helpers work with the rule of "one for the bowl. One for me. One more for me. One for the bowl..."

And you might need to put lots of people to work. Like your mom who is indignent that you took her picture when she had her glasses on. And no make up.

Or your brother. Who just thought he was coming over to spend some quality time with his mom. He had no idea that he'd be put to work.

And children. Have to put them to work. And their little friends, too.

Lay out your pretzels on a cookie sheet. We used tiny twists and waffle pretzels.

And then add your candies.Bake at about 200º for 4-6 minutes. You just want the candies soft. Not melted. Just remember if you are using white chocolate. It melts much faster than the darker chocolate. And if you are using peanut butter kisses - they melt even faster than the white chocolate.

As soon as they come out of the oven. You can press in pecans. Or peanut m&ms. Or plain m&ms. Or whatever strikes your fancy.

After you have pressed the candy into the candy. Wait. Was that clear? Clear as mud I'm sure. Anyway. After the candy has been pressed. Into the candy. Put the sheet into the fridge or freezer to help the candy set. Maybe for about 20 minutes. Longer is fine. But you will need that pan for your next batch.

At Christmas time we call these Reindeer noses. At Easter, get some pastel m&ms and call them bunny noses. At Halloween, use the seasonal colors and call them Frankenstein's bolts.

But whatever the season. Whatever the shades. These are delish. And easy. And gone far too quickly!

So...what about you? Do you cook with your kids? Do they have a favorite thing to help with? To eat? Or what about when you were a kid? Did you like to help in the kitchen or cook? Did you have a favorite thing to make?

PS - Did you enter to win? This week's prize is dinner and a movie. Oh, and a DVD of "Love Actually."

40 comments:

I cook with the wee ones, and I hope that they start absorbing more as they get older. They do know a lot of the kinds of things that go into various recipes.

They LOVE to make cookies. And pancakes. And scones. And granola. Pretty much anything I let them do actually...

I used to love making chocolate chip cookie dough. And eating it. Without the chips. But sometimes with mini marshmallows. We'd put it in the freezer and eat it over the course of a week or so. How sad ;)

My mom didn't ever really cook -- so this was the only thing we made ever. I think I'm making up for it now :)

Oh yeah, I saw your comment on Gina's blog about the review for Tale of Desperaux.

We loved the movie! Both Ben and I felt that it stayed very true to the book and the animation was fantastic. I walked out of there thinking that it was the best book made into a movie that I have ever seen.

YUM! Noah and I are so making those tomorrow!He cooks with me every night. He's big on stirring at the stove (safely) and loves to taste anything sweet. We made snickerdoodles yesterday and ended up with 29 instead of 36, thanks to him. :)

We are going to be cookie baking wild people this afternoon. Can't wait. Always make tons of chocolate chip cookies and oatmeal cookies. Going to add shortbread this year. Doug makes Russian tea cakes and bourbon balls. I need to go to the store again...to buy the ingredients for your recipe. It looks so yummy!

Oh goodness. Im hungry now! Our big thing around Christmas was fudge. I dont make it anymore simply because mine never turns out right (like mom's) and now with me on this eating modification, I cant have it anyhow.

Shoot...now I need pretzels! And more M&M's. And I will have to hide them.

Although I think I like the pecan idea better. Hmmmm thinking aloud.

I helped Stephen make peanut butter blossoms the other night and he helped me make cookies for Halloween, but that's about it. After the holidays are done then he will have one night a week to cook. Cause we can't have him starving at college right?

This is easy-looking. And delicious-looking. I need it now. Please send Kathy and one of your girls to my house...whichever you choose will be fine. And then we'll make these together and have a good time and be all, "Wow--wish Katrina and the rest of 'em were here..."

Well, thanks for that! Now I'm going to have to go BACK out and get ingredients to make these :) And did I mention it's like 12 degrees?? Ah well...they look worth it! I cook with my kids sometimes...it stresses me out...I'm working on that :) They like to crush things up...like Ritz crackers or candy canes :) Connor is especially good at using my Pampered Chef mini chopper to help with all the chopping of the celery and onions for the dressing :) God love that kid! He just chops and cries (because of the onions!) As for me, when I was a kid, I don't have fond memories of cooking with anyone...how sad :( We made taco salad a lot....I remember that, and I did like it. But it's kinda sad that I don't look back and remember anything fun I made. Okaaay, so, now I'm gonna go make these with my kids so they'll have great memories :) Off to the store first :)

Those reindeer noses are so cool! When I was a kid, my mother never made Christmas cookies but I had a Aunt who would bring a big tin full of homemade cookies for us every Christmas Eve. When my daughter was little, we always baked some kind of Christmas cookie. We still do except she was very busy with her job this year so we didn't make cookies for this Chritmas.

My mom would make Peanut Butter fudge every Christmas. I never quite got the hang of making it myself though. I miss it.

My sister and I would go to our grandma's house every year before Christmas to help her make Christmas cookies. We'd cut out and decorate the sugar cookies, and she'd do pinwheels that had already been prepared and just needed to be baked. I'm sure there were other cookies she made, but I don't remember what.

The ones where ya'll used the Hugs look cool. And I will be making peanut butter balls this week... but I like to add a pretzel stuck on the bottom (after you make the balls, press them onto a mini pretzel... chill then dip in melted chocolate... chill again) I love having the combination of salty and sweet! So yummy!

I should probably let my kids cook with me more often. Especially H... that way I can get her to do some of the work! Believe it or not, one of her fave things to make are meatballs when we have spaghetti.

Okay, those look yummy! Love the reindeer noses name. These look like the perfect thing right now since we're all but snowed in. It dumped a foot on us last night. My 4 wheel drive truck is even having a difficult time just driving through my neighbor hood. Hope you are all safe and sound and warm!

Disney loving mom who found the best job in the whole world - helping other people to take trips to the happiest place on earth. All while being a mom and teaching classes to homeschoolers. Living a fabulous life!